Bwanabob

3/13/2001

Dear Friends,

It’s been a couple of weeks since Ericka and I have written anything so I’ll try to catch up a little on what we’ve been doing.

We were down country a couple of weeks ago to look at buying another vehicle. The whole time we were praying that if it was the Lords will it would work out and if not that we wouldn’t buy something the Lord wouldn’t want us to have. To make a long story short nothing panned out and I feel completely at peace about not having another vehicle. With the pickup and motorcycle, Ericka and I are always able to get where we need to. As for having transportation when our group comes to visit, we’ll simply lease a matatu (minivan).

We hauled back a good load of building supplies from down country and are getting them into place to be used in the coming months. Getting cement and gravel to the Church in Juluk was quite fun. The track we use to go to Juluk leads us to the Turkwell River, if there is too much water in the river we park the truck and wade across. Well, this is what we did last Sunday morning when we went to visit the Church, but unfortunately we were trying to get 900 pounds of cement there too. After the service about 30 of us went back to the truck carrying empty buckets, cans or corn sacks. We opened the bags of cement and divided it among all of the church members that had come to help. One man carried a full bag across the river, put it in a wheel barrow and took it to the church. Another man carried a full bag across and put it on a bicycle. The rest was divided in varying amounts among the men, women and children. Ericka and I did our part and we all had a good time watching Ericka carry about 30 pounds of cement on her head. What a woman!

Later that day we took a load of gravel to the river, (there is only sand at this riverbed) thinking that we would have to unload it there to be carried in the same way on to the church. Fortunately, the water in the river had gone down, (water is released through a hydroelectric project upstream about 15 miles) and I was able to drive across and take the gravel directly to the church.

Don’t think that I take crossing the river lightly. If we were to get stuck the only feasible option for pulling the truck out would be to get as many people as possible to come with ropes and shovels. There are no towing services in Turkana.

Ericka and I have been working on language and trying to fix up our house. Language is going well, but our arrangements with a teacher for Ericka have not worked out. Ericka is using one of the books I learned from and we are still planning for her to get a teacher soon. Speaking of teachers and lessons, Ericka was given lessons on goat milking by some of the ladies in Lopur. I didn’t get to see it but the ladies told me she did a fine job.

Fixing up the house is another story. Once we have what is needed for work everything goes well, but finding supplies and getting simple things done in town is very time consuming. I had 7 pieces of pipe threaded today and it seemed to take ALL DAY LONG. I don’t even want to try and relate the chain of events that took place in the process. Ericka has been working on painting and will soon tackle the curtain project, I hope she doesn’t have as much trouble as I do with the plumbing.

The churches and Bible Institute students have been a blessing. They are all growing number wise and it seems they are maturing. The pastors are always talking of their preaching points and how we can evangelize new places. When a church is in need of anything, the pastors have begun by telling me the need and how much the church has given toward the need, then we discuss what part I might be able to help with. This is a major change from the way things were approached just a couple of years ago. We thank you for your prayers and ask that you just pray the Lord will use us effectively here in Turkana.

God bless and Keep you all.

Bob and Ericka Clark